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Sailkarma is a site dedicated to bringing the most amazing images, videos and information from around the world on some of the best sailing events on the planet! With updates around the clock, we are here to serve you and give you what you want to see and hear. So stay tuned…

Thursday, April 29, 2010

A record seven flights got completed today in perfect conditions. BMW ORACLE Racing leads the provisional match race ranking with five points, ahead of Team Aqua and Team Sea Dubai (4 points).

Packed with protest flags, incidents and flogging sails, the first day of the RC 44 Austria Cup lived up to its promises. Principal Race Officer Peter Reggio decided to set up the course at the southern end of the lake, in search of a stronger breeze. The call proved right and the teams got blessed with a superb 10-15 knots very cold breeze blowing from the north.

The first flight of the day turned out to be a round of observation, with big distances between the boats and no serious incidents to report. But the situation rapidly changed, with the teams sailing more aggressively throughout the afternoon.

Absent from the Championship Tour since last year’s Portoroz Cup due to his America’s Cup commitments, Russell Coutts immediately confirmed that he hadn’t lost his magic touch, giving perfect advice to his helmsman Larry Ellison and winning his first three matches. The fourth one, against Paul Cayard’s Katusha, turned out to be the best one of the day, with the two teams staying in close contact throughout the race and inflicting each other all of match race’s dirty tricks. Paul Cayard won the match, but the duo Coutts / Ellison got its revenge in the next flight during another superb match, this time against James Spithill on board RC 44 Challenge.

Winner of the season’s first match race in the United Arab Emirates, Team Sea Dubai confirmed its great match race skills by winning four regattas today. Markus Wieser and his team are currently second of the provisional ranking, on a tie with Team Aqua. Also on great form, Cameron Appleton and his crewmembers could well be sitting on top of the leader board alongside BMW ORACLE Racing if they hadn’t lost a precious point to Islas Canarias Puerto Calero. After leading the entire race, Team Aqua was nearing the arrival line and only had a penalty turn to perform to grab the point. However, the exercise turned into a nightmare when the spinnaker fell in the water, stopping the boat and opening a precious gap for the Spaniards.

Five more flights will be sailed tomorrow, weather permitting. The forecast isn’t good; the temperature should drop whilst showers and light wind are predicted. Every new flight will be welcomed; however the tournament is already valid with the seven flights completed today.

They said:

Russell Coutts, tactician, BMW ORACLE Racing: “I am really happy to be back on the Championship Tour. And obviously, it is good to be on top of the leader board. Larry also hugely enjoyed the day and had a great time. He likes this class very much and there is no doubt that we will see him a lot in the future.”

René Mangold, owner, AEZ RC 44 Sailing Team: “Our situation is quite different to the other team’s, who sail 300 days a year. We are pure amateurs; we have different jobs so it is difficult for us. As soon as we make a mistake we loose any chance to win a race. Our results today aren’t very good, but we hope to win several races in front of our public.”

James Spithill, helmsman, RC 44 Challenge: “This is one of the most beautiful venues that I know. Today’s races were great, but I am still a little bit rusty and not used to sailing monohulls anymore. Our team is also completely new, so we need to get used to sailing together.”

Paul Cayard, helmsman, Katusha: “We had a fantastic race against Russell, with many close situations, where he was yelling at me and trying to remind me how to sail well; he was probably quite right… I enjoyed today, and made the best of it because I am starting to know this lake: the conditions can change pretty quickly up here.”

The 2010 Moth European Championships will take place from August 15th to 21st on Lake Silvaplana in the Swiss Alps and will be sponsored by the Bank SYZ & CO.

The Moth European Championships will take place this year from August 15th to August 21st in the Swiss Alps near St-Moritz, on Silvaplana Lake, well-known for its exceptional wind conditions. The organizers are delighted to announce the Bank SYZ & CO as Title Sponsor. An idyllic setting and the “maloja” (regional strong thermal wind) will welcome the best Moths sailors of the world for a competition already foreseen as spectacular!

The Bank SYZ & CO, Title Sponsor

The Swiss Moth Association is pleased to announce that the Bank SYZ & CO, who is already supporting several racing boats as well as the Leman Sailing Speed Records on Lake Geneva, will be the Title Sponsor of the competition: “We have been supporting the sailing speed quest for many years and these amazing racing boats are the perfect expression of this search for performance, through technology, innovation and audacity”, says Ricardo Payro, Bank SYZ & CO Communication Director. “We are very pleased to give the public the opportunity to see the breathtaking show these sailing virtuosos from all around the world will offer in the enchanting setting of Silvaplana.”

Spectacular competition on an Alpine lake known for its exceptional wind!

The SYZ & CO 2010 EUROPEANS will be held from Sunday August 15th to Saturday August 21th in St-Moritz, one of the most beautiful ski resort in the world, famous for its social life, but also for its fabulous Upper Engadine lakes and mountains landscapes, equally amazing in summer and in winter.

The championship will begin on August 15th with an exciting race on St-Moritz lake: a “Dash for Cash” regatta, a sailing sprint with eliminatory runs, rewarded by a Prize Money. The show is guaranteed with an only leg with a windward start, spiced by 4 gybes, only a few meters from the shore.

The following day, the competitors will move a few kilometres further to Silvaplana lake. Located at an altitude of almost 2'000 meters, this lake is known for its crystal-clear water, and mainly for its constant thermal wind, called the maloja, reinforced by the shape of the valley especially in the summer.

As a reminder, the Moth is a small and extremely fast boat measuring 3.3 meters long and weighting only 30 kg! With an 8m2 sail and only one master on board, a true equilibrist, who, if the wind allows it, can make his boat fly on the water, at record speeds of more than 45 km/h! … And in Silvaplana, it will be windy! The public will be able to follow the flying boats from the shore and will benefit from the comments of a speaker.

The championship website is now on. It will allow the sailing lovers to follow the regattas “live” on line, as the boats will be equipped with a GPS tracking system. The regattas will be organized jointly by the St-Moritz Yacht Club and the Société Nautique de Genève and will be supervised by Jean-Pierre Ziegert, President of the Swiss Moth Association.

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Audi A1 Team powered by ALL4ONE, eleventh contender for the TP52 Series

With two weeks to go before the Portugal Trophy, Cascais, the first event of the 2010 Audi MedCup Circuit, Audi (AG) have confirmed today a new contender for the TP52 Series.

German multiple Olympic medallist Jochen Schümann and French campaigner Stéphane Kandler have joined forces launching ?Audi A1 Team powered by ALL4ONE? forming an international team comprising sailors from seven countries.

The Franco-German ?ALL4ONE? squad was established originally by Stéphane Kandler and Jochen Schümann in September of 2009 and involves a number of international professional sailors: in addition to seven members from France and Germany, there are sailors from Spain, Italy, Australia, the Netherlands and Switzerland on board. Read more...

By Talbot WilsonErin raised from bottom of Bermuda’s Great SoundCheck out the new event web site at http://www.biirw.bm/

Tim Patton and his crew from Bermuda Marine Services rescued the J24 Erwin from the bottom of Bermuda’s Great Sound today. The boat sank Tuesday in Race 5 of the J24 Class competition in Bermuda International Invitational Race week.

Erin had been on the last leg of the last race on Tuesday. She was flying her spinnaker in a building 30-knot breeze. As the boat rounded up in a massive broach, she put her mast in the water and flooded the cockpit and cabin. The boat didn’t right herself and just sank to the bottom, sails and all.

No one was injured. Chase boats on the course picked up Lynch and his crew of Barry Surbuchen, Steven Musicant, Natalie Luthi, Tiffany Wardman as the floated near the mast of the sunken boat. Several racing boats diverted to render assistance as well.

A diver retrieved sails and personal items and the motor shortly after the sinking. About two feet of the mast was sticking above the water and Erin was standing straight up with her keel resting on the sandy bottom. She was marked with a buoy overnight.

Wednesday morning, Patton and crew took two work barges to the site. It was quite windy and the Great Sound had a two-foot chop, so after attaching a chain to the boat’s hoist ring they lifted the boat just off the bottom. Moving at about a half-knot, they took Erin into the lee of Long Island to get out of the wind and waves.

They couldn’t just lift the boat out of the water because the weight of all the water inside would have broken the boat in half. A diver positioned two straps under the boat, one in front of the Keel and one behind it. the winches on the two barges lifted Erin so her deck and cockpit companionway were just above the water.

They lowered a high capacity pump into the cabin. As the water was pumped out, the boat rose out of the water.

Erin was back at the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club marina by 2:00PM Wednesday afternoon. When racing in Bermuda International Invitational Race Week resumes on Thursday Erin will race again.

A low North of Bermuda is bringing a series of troughs over the area Wednesday. Winds will be strong to near gale force with gusts to gale force, especially in showers. High pressure builds in on Thursday easing winds and seas. The Forecast for Thursday is WNW 18-22kts and Friday WNW 15-20kts.

Details, entry lists, results and photos will be posted on the RBYC web site: http://www.biirw.bm/

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Built in 1910 the Schooner FAME is at Koehler Kraft Boat Yard on Shelter Island in San Diego, CA undergoing a complete rebuild. She will be 100 years old in July when her new owner, Dennis Conner will re launch her. More to come...

We were scheduled to be the third group to sail, with each group ahead of us each sailing three flights first. Group C finished their round with great wind, maybe up to 10kts of breeze. As the repecharge group were rotating in, the clouds started moving towards the race course. This affected the wind a bit, and during their first race, the dying trend began. During their second race, the boats sat at the leeward mark for 10 minutes before the race committee cancelled racing. After another hour of sitting and waiting, the gold group was cancelled for the day so we went ashore around 5:30pm.

One member of our team did actually get to sail today though. Debbie filled in for Alice Manard, the bow on the other USSTAG team, who got food poisoning a couple of nights ago and is not well. They asked Debbie if she would be able to sail today as a fill in if Alice woke up again not feeling well. After going through all of the required procedures for it to happen, Deb sailed the one race that the repecharge completed. They won their race, which was a good way to start their round. We are hoping that Alice feels better tomorrow morning and can sail again.

The forecast for tomorrow looks slightly better so we are hoping that we can complete the gold fleet round robin tomorrow. Our fingers are crossed. The weather has been lovely, but a bit more wind would make it perfect.

You can check out the regatta results on the regatta website. (Click on Match Racing near the top right, and open the pdf file when prompted.)

We would like to thank Carmeuse and Trinity Yachts for their continued support of our campaign for the 2012 Olympics in London. We would also like to thank USSTAG for their continued support.

Simmons and Snyder just keep on winning - Talbot WilsonCheck out the new event web site at http://www.biirw.bm/

It was Winds 1, Yachts 0 today as Tim Lynch’s J24, Erin, took a deathroll and sank on the last leg of Race 5 of Bermuda InternationalInvitational Race Week regatta. Erin was flying downwind underspinnaker in 30 knots of wind on Bermuda’s Great Sound. She took aknockdown and stuck her mast in the water. The cockpit and cabinflooded almost immediately.

No one was injured. Lynch and his crew Barry Surbuchen, StevenMusicant, Natalie Luthi, Tiffany Wardman were picked up quickly bychase boats on the course. Several racing boats diverted to renderassistance as well. Efforts to raise Erin from about fifty feet ofwater continued Tuesday afternoon.

In other sailing action today, Eugene “Penny” Simmons, his crew SachaSimmons, Steven King, Steven King, Steve Mohr and D’Arcey Betschartgot one step closer to winning the 7-race IOD “A” Series They alsolead in the overall competition for the Vrengen Gold Cup Trophy. TodaySimmons sailed Bounty (IOD 10) to a first and third and now has 7points. He leads the Peckham/Carver team by three points. Tony Hustonand Patrick Cooper are tied in third with 22 each.

In the J24’s, Colorado’s Scott Snyder sailed two more excellentraces. Snyder has a perfect slate of first place finishes so farthis week. He has scored 1,1,1,1,1 for 5 points, 4 with his droppedrace. Peter Rich of the Severn Sailing association in AnnapolisMaryland climbed into second place with 11 points. Trevor Boyce fellto seventh place after taking two RAF’s due to rule infractions inboth races. Sean McDermott moved into third place with 13 points.

Rockal Evans slipped into the front in the Laser Class. Today he tooka third, a second and a first for 15 points after dropping his worstfinish. Brett Wright moved into second with 16 points and MalcolmSmith stands third with 18.

In the Etchells Class, Bermudian Martin Vezina held on to first placewith a 1,3 for the day, He has 9 points. Malcolm Graham-Taylor and TimPatton are both one point back with 10 points each.

The J105 class liked the high winds again. Allan Williams, skipper ofNot Mine for the day, got a 1,3 and is now in a tie with ChuckMillican in Elusive, both with 8 points. James MacDonald, still inthird place now has 13 points.

Tonight is the Bacardi® Rock on the Dock BBQ at the Royal BermudaYacht Club. No races are scheduled for Wednesday, so racing continuesat 11:00 Thursday. Breezy conditions are expected to continue butnothing like the 30 knot wind on the course today. Forecasters saywinds will moderate to 15-20 knots for Thursday and Friday.

Details, entry lists, results and photos will be posted on the RBYCweb site: http://www.biirw.bm/Racing starts at 1100hrs on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday andFriday for both courses.

The Prize Giving Party at RBYC concludes Race Week on Friday the 30thof April. In addition to the fantastic sailing competition, the weekis sprinkled with fleet parties.

Inaugurated by the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club in 1927, BermudaInternational Invitational Race Week has become an establishedinternational yachting fixture each spring - attracting top skippersfrom all over the world. Bermuda Premium Spirits Limited, localdistributor for BACARDI® rum, is the sponsor and has been for the pastnine years. All classes with an active local racing program in Bermudamay invite international sailors to participate in the 2010 BermudaInternational Invitational Race Week. International participation isrequired for a fleet to compete.

Gmunden - After a quick trip to Moscow on Sunday and Sochi yesterday, to work on a Russian Louis Vuitton Trophy event in 2011, I arrived in Austria late last night.

Gmunden and its Lake Traunsee is the site of the second event on the RC 44 Championship Tour of 2010. Lake Traunsee is spectacularily beautiful with 2000 meter mountains rising right up out of the lake. There is still snow in those mountains so it is not the normal sailing scenery. The tall mountains do make it challenging for the wind.

Today was our first training day on Katusha. The sailing was sporadic as the wind filled first at the south end of the lake then died there and filled at the north end, albeit from the south.

We trained with our partners on Artemis. I felt a bit rusty, probably the 30 hours of flying since Saturday didn't help. Tomorrow is the weigh-in so sauna first thing as we need to drop 15 kgs as a team. Then another training day, then we will get the match racing part of the event underway on Thursday.

The fleet racing will start on Sunday and the event concludes on Tuesday the 4th.

Ten teams are here including two teams from America's Cup winner BMW Oracle. Skipper Larry Ellison with tactician Russell Coutts were out training today, as were 9 of the 10 teams.

Monday, April 26, 2010

Hyeres, France - Racing started today at the Semaine Olympique Francaise, here in Hyeres, France. It was a beautiful day in southern France with a light breeze all through the day. Team Tunnicliffe are in group A for the Match Racers, and meant that we sailed first. We had a gradient breeze of 4-6kts for our two races. We won both of the races, and had a bye in the third flight of the round due to a couple of teams not being able to make it to the event.

Our first race was against Denmark's Trine Abrahamsen. We didn't have a great pre-start against her, but had a clean start at the pin end of the line. She was over at the boat end, so we were able to take advantage of her mistake and went on to win the race.

Our second race was against Spain's Sylvia Roca. We controlled her in the pre-start and had a great start against her. At the bottom of the course we held an almost 5 boat length lead over her, but she is very fast and kept getting a little more breeze than we did which allowed her to pull back the five boat lengths and round right on our stern at the top mark. Downwind, we sailed very smart and kept the lead, even extending a little. Up the second beat, we saw pressure on the left, so we rounded the mark and continued to go straight. Sylvia tacked away and headed right. We split for a long time before we came back together and although we hadn't gained much, it was another boat length. Downwind again, we sailed smart and took the lead.Team Tunnicliffe And Team Tulloch Debrief With Coach Dave DellenbaughPhoto: USSTAG Facebook PageAs the rest of our group sailed in the third flight, we had a bye. Only 22 of the original 24 teams made it to the event. Team China didn't make it due to air travel problems. So this left two of the three groups with only seven teams, meaning during each flight, one team sits out. Tomorrow, however, we will sail all four flights to complete the round robin. We felt like today we got some of our nerves out of the way, and are very much looking forward to four races tomorrow. You can check the regatta scores at the regatta website.

Some additional good news, which I received this morning, is that at the Lauderdale YC awards banquet last night, I was awarded the LYC 2009 Yachtswoman of the Year. It is a great honor to win this award, and I'm very sorry that I couldn't be there to accept it. It's great to have such a supportive club behind what I am/we are doing and having the ability to train at such a prime location has been a huge factor in my success.

We would like to thank Carmeuse and Trinity Yachts for their continued support of our campaign towards the 2012 Olympics in London. We would also like to thank USSTAG for their support.

Photo credit: Rolex / Daniel ForsterThe Rolex Farr 40 Worlds lived up to its billing as the big boat one-design championship against which all others are measured. The 2010 series was decided on the final race of the final day, raced in front of a huge spectator fleet from rubber ducks to 25 metre sport fishers. Massimo Mezzaroma’s Nerone (ITA) ended the day lauded champion, for the second time (first in 2003), having fought tooth and nail in a gladiatorial arena worthy of a blockbuster film. Guido Belgiorno-Nettis’ Transfusion (AUS) were beaten at the last, but certainly not disgraced. The next Rolex Farr 40 World Championship will be held in Sydney in February 2011. What a rematch in prospect.

The final day started early. Principal Race Officer, Peter Reggio, knew he was in charge of a Worlds, and was determined to give the participants every chance to complete the scheduled ten races, in spite of losing the entire second day. The first signal was brought forward to 1000 local time, three races were threatened and for once the wind played ball. Three races were held, all at the highest intensity, with the three main protagonists in contention for the laurels at the fore every time. Defending champion, Jim Richardson’s Barking Mad (USA), chose today to put together their best daily tally of the series, scoring 2,3,1. They gave no favours on the course to either of their main opponents.

The Australians on Transfusion held a two-point cushion at the start of the day. Belgiorno Nettis knew it was not enough to feel comfortable. At least the fight was in their hands; all they had to do was keep in front of Nerone. Easier said than done. The Italians are wily foxes, capable of sniffing out an advantage from the most improbable situations. Take the bottom mark rounding of the first race, eventually won by Helmut Jahn’s Flash Gordon (USA). Transfusion in second rounded the right hand gate mark and tacked almost immediately. Nerone, barrelling down under spinnaker with their minds firmly on a clean and rapid takedown found themselves completely in the wrong position. Nerone fouled Transfusion and faced a penalty turn. That they managed to limit the damage to a one point loss by the end of the race suggests not only brilliance but extraordinary resilience. But tactician, Vasco Vascotto, is extraordinary if nothing else. Terry Hutchinson once said, ”sailing against Vasco makes you a better sailor”.

Sunday, April 25, 2010

Lorenzo Berho of Mexico finished first with Peligroso in the big boat Maxi class of the Newport Ocean Sailing Association's 63rd Newport to Ensenada International Yacht Race in the pre-dawn Saturday morning.

Never mind that in Sunday's awards ceremony the trophy will go to Dick Compton, Jim Yabsley and Tom Parker, the owners of Taxi Dancer, teh Reichel/Pugh 68 from Santa Barbara that beat him by 70 minutes on corrected PHRF handicap time over the 125.5 nautical miles.

No matter. "We are the first boat from Mexico to finish first in the Maxi class," Berho said.

Parker said the Taxi Dancer team enjoyed "a great party" the night before the race, but they'll have another in Baja.

Then there was Bill Gibbs from Ventura, who was delighted when his Tennant catamaran, Afterburner, finished only an hour and a half behind H.L. Enloe's much faster trimaran, Loe Real, because he collected 26 minutes more than what the San Diego-based rival owed him in handicap time to win the ORCA class for multihulls.

Dennis Conner's Stars & Stripes was a more serious threat. Taxi Dancer owed time to the dark blue Farr 60 and tallied out by less than 12 minutes.

Now the anxiety is about who will collect the $6,000 Lamborghini diamond watch that will be presented Sunday to the winner of the President of USA Trophy for best overall corrected handicap time. That was still up in the air Saturday afternoon as the slower-rated PHRF classes approached the finish line with the significant advantage of better breeze-- following from the west rather than on the nose from the east-- than the bigger boats found in the morning.

That was not a worry for Gibbs, the new president of the Ocean Racing Catamaran Association. All of his ORCA multihull competition were in the same boat.

"Ensenada has been an interesting race for us," he said. "In 11 attempts we have broken three times and been first to finish three times. This time we weren't first to finish but we won."

But it was tricky.

"We bought the boat to support Mexico's young sailors," he said---and he wanted a boat that would draw attention.

For this race, he said, "We had mostly a crew of sailors in their early 20s … young people with ambitions to sail in major events---even in the Olympics."

His navigator was Piet van Os of La Jolla, who had the same assignment on Morning Light, the boat sailed by a similar crew for the late Roy E. Disney's documentary film of the same name. Van Os now sails the world navigating merchant ships."He just flew in Thursday to do this race," Berho said.

H.L. Enloe's hope was to challenge the multihull record of 6 hours 46 minutes 40 seconds set by the late Steve Fossett on the Stars & Stripes catamaran in 1998, but the conditions weren't there for his 60-foot trimaran. Although finishing first, he was an hour and 7 1/2 minutes over his own best time of 8:45:03 of last year.

Lamborghini Travels has joined has joined the list of event sponsors and supporters that also include North Sails, the world's largest sailmaker; City of Newport Beach, Go Baja, The Pirate's Lair, Mount Gay Rum, Firebrand Media, Marriott Newport Beach Hotel and Spa, Connection to Cruise/Carnival Cruise Lines, Vessel Assist, Ruby's, West Marine and Weather Routing Inc.

Logistical support is provided by the Bahia Corinthian, Balboa and Newport Harbor Yacht Clubs.

Newport Beach, an opulent seaside community located on the Orange County coastline between Los Angeles and San Diego, epitomizes the quintessential Southern California lifestyle. Known for its picturesque views of the Pacific and one of the world’s largest small yacht harbors, the city is acclaimed for its beaches, yachting community, sophisticated atmosphere, international film festival, three annual epicurean festivals and the oldest holiday boat parade in the nation. Newport Beach was named “one of the top 10 resort towns in the U.S.” by AOL Travel in 2008. For more information, call (800) 94-COAST or visit online

Friday, April 23, 2010

Hyeres, France - The whole team finally arrived in France late last night, after five days of trying, for the Semaine Olympique Francaise, the fourth stop of the ISAF Sailing World Cup. Initially our plan was to arrive on Monday of this week, so as to have a week of training with the Spanish and French teams. However, our plans changed, to getting here in any way possible before racing started, thanks to the Ejkilas;dfa;sdfjk (Eyjafjallajokull) volcano. As with many travelers this past week, we had flights cancelled on us numerous times, but finally we ended up finding and coordinating three flights and other modes of transport, that eventually got us here.

On The Shuttle To The Plane To NicePockets Stuffed With Luggage And Wearing Heavy Weather JacketDebbie's flight was cancelled first on Saturday night, and so she immediately got on the phone with travel agents and Air France to try and arrange other possibilities. She was told the earliest they could get her a flight was on Friday (today), which would have worked but pushing it a little close to the regatta. She booked the flight as a back up, but kept working on other plans to see if there was anything else available. She found three seats on two different Alitalia flights to Rome and booked them for us. Eventually, on Monday, she got back in touch with Air France and they told her that they could get her on a flight on Tuesday to Mardrid, via Atlanta and Texas. When she showed up to the airport on Tuesday morning at 7am, it turned out that somehow she still had the portion of her ticket that took her to Atlanta, but the rest of the ticket was cancelled. The lady at the check-in counter told her to just take the Atlanta flight and they could probably get her out from there. She refused, obviously, because she didn't want to get stuck in Atlanta with no options. So she finally got them to put her standby on a direct flight to Madrid from JFK that day departing at 5pm. As it turned out the flight she was on had at least 15 empty seats so she had no problem getting on it. After she got to Madrid, she was to catch another flight to Barcelona where she was meeting up with USSTAG teammates Brian Boyd, Zach Railey, and coach Kenneth Andreasen for a 7 hour drive to Hyeres, France.

Molly and I had a bit of a different trip. Our flights were cancelled a couple of times after rebookings, and then eventually the airlines couldn't get either of us on flights until next week, so we ended up canceling our original tickets and taking the flights to Rome. When we booked the tickets, I was booked to fly to Chicago and then to Rome, Molly was to fly from LA to Miami, and then to Rome. It seems a bit funny to have it booked like that, given I'm the one that lives close to Miami, but when we were booking, we were taking anything we could get. Molly arrived at LAX airport on Wednesday to find they changed the plane size so they were oversold on her flight by 30 tickets. They were looking for volunteers with a voucher as the incentive, and given that we were in dire need to save some money from having to change tickets, she took the option. Anyway, it meant that instead of arriving into Miami at 8:15pm, she arrived at 12:45am on Thursday morning. I picked her up at the airport, only to return to the airport at 5:30am that morning for my flight to Chicago.

We got our flights to Rome, despite them being delayed a few hours before we took off, and met up there in baggage claim. We arrived at 10am, and our next flight was from Rome to Nice, France at 8pm. Once in Nice our plan was to drive to Hyeres. All was going to plan, except when we went to book into our flight to Nice, they told us they weren't starting to check in until 5pm, and that we could only check one bag at 20kg (about 44lbs) and carry-on one bag (any weight if it would fit into the overhead bin). If we had an extra bag, we would have to pay 22Euros per bag and 12Euros per Kilogram of weight. Well, we were in a bit of a panic at that point, because between the two of us we had six bags, and two of them weighed almost 50lbs each (2.2lb = 1kg). Well, after a couple of coffees to keep us awake, and some creative packing, we managed to get all of our gear into four bags total. We carefully and skillfully placed our bags on the scale when we checked in so that they weighted 21kg each, and the kind lady didn't charge us for being 1kg overweight each. Our carry-on's, however, were now quite heavy (at least 30lbs each), and our pockets were stuffed with headphones, wallets, books and anything else that we couldn't get into the bags. Molly even ended up wearing her big foul weather jacket onto the plane. Anyway, we get through and onto the plane, and slept the hour it took to get to France.Anna, Coach Dave Dellenbaugh, Debbie At Dinner After Practice Today (Friday)Next, we arrived in Nice, found the car rental place, and checked in. Just as the attendant is handing me the keys, I reminded him that I would be returning the car to Hyeres, France. He took back the keys and said, "We don't have a car for you." I was like, "What do you mean? I have a reservation which says that I'm returning it to Hyeres, and you were just giving me the keys." Anyway, after a fight with them, and Molly crossing the street to the competition and getting them to say that they could give us a car for cheaper, they all of a sudden had a car for us. So go figure!!!

We had a pleasant one and a half hour drive to Hyeres, arrived at 12:30am, and passed out in our beds pretty quickly. We woke up at what felt like 4:30am, but was really 9:30am, so we forced ourselves to get up and looked out the window.

The rain was pouring and the wind blowing when we awoke, but throughout the day, the wind eased considerably, to around 6-8kts, and the rain lightened up a bit too. We had a great practice today with our USSTAG teammates Genny, Karina, and Alice, and coach Dave Dellenbaugh.

Tomorrow, we have a 9am practice for a couple of hours and then we start racing first thing on Sunday. There are 24 teams here again, and we are following the same format as we have done in previous ISAF Sailing World Cup events, so we will be in group A for the first round robin of racing.

You can follow the results online here at the regatta website, and we will be posting nightly updates to give the low-down on how we doing.

We would like to thank Carmeuse and Trinity Yachts for their support of our campaign for the 2012 Olympics in London. We would also like to thank USSTAG for their support.

Thursday, April 22, 2010

AFP)VALENCIA, Spain — Announcements regarding the next America's Cup will be made in May but neither the date nor the location have yet been decided, New Zealand skipper Russell Coutts of defending champions Oracle said Thursday.

"We have had several consultations for the 34th edition, namely over the design of the boats and we are very close to making a public announcement over the Cup next month," he told AFP.

"It will be in 2013 or 2014. As for the location, everything is still open. San Francisco is appealing, but other sites in the United States and elsewhere in the world are as well," he added.

Coutts was chief executive of the San Francisco-based Oracle syndicate that won the 33rd America?s Cup in February. It beat Swiss champion Alinghi off the Spanish port of Valencia, returning sports? oldest trophy to the United States.

As Oracle is based in San Francisco, there has been much speculation that the 34th America's Cup will be held in the city on the US west coast in 2013.

Coutts said that several "concepts" for the next edition will be examined with all the potential challengers, which include two possible French teams headed by Stephane Kandler and Marc Pajot.

The announcements regarding the next Cup will be made in Europe next month together with the "challenger of record" who establishes the rules for the race along with the defender, in this case Italy's Mascalzone Latino.

Coutts, 48, reiterated that he has not yet decided if he would participate in Oracle's campaign for the 34th America's Cup.

Shortly after Oracle won the Cup in February, he told AFP that he was hesitating because he would like to spend more time with his family.

Coutts was in Valencia Thursday to present the stage of the RC 44 Championship Circuit 2010 that will be held in the city the end of July, in which an Oracle boat will participate.

Newport Beach, Calif. - Seven of last year's nine winners of major awards in the Newport Ocean Sailing Assocation's Newport to Ensenada International yacht Race will return to the starting line off Balboa Pier for the 63rd annual classic Friday at noon. Spectators won't have any trouble picking out the fastest one among the 212 entries: H.K. (Loe) Enloe's Jeanneau 60 trimaran, LoeReal. It's the tall one with three hulls.

In 2009's dream reaching breeze, as Doug Baker's Magnitude 80 ripped off a record time by a monohull of 10 hours 37 minutes 50 seconds, Enloe, of El Paso, Tex., and his world-class crew sailed their French-built beauty to the second fastest time ever by a multihull of 8 hours 45 minutes 3 seconds. That earned them the race's NOSA award for fastest elapsed time by any boat.

Mag 80 won't be back, but LoeReal, representing San Diego's Silver Gate Yacht Club, returns with an ambitious goal: the race multihull record of 6 hours 46 minutes 40 seconds set by the late Steve Fossett on the Stars & Stripes catamaran in 1998---the only boat ever to finish before sundown.

Do they have a shot at it?

"Well, right now I'm just worried about winning the race," Enloe said. "But a littler prayer might help."

The overall winner on corrected handicap time---Maxis plus PHRF A through K are eligible---will receive a $6,000 Lamborghini diamond watch.

The rest of the usual big boat crowd chose to sail to San Diego instead of Mexico this weekend.

The forecast at midweek for Friday was for south-southwest wind of 8 knots, following a couple of days of rain showers. Rain doesn't matter; it's wind that counts.

One of LoeReal's crew, John Gladstone of North Sails, also sailed with Fossett in '98. He compared that race to last year's on LoeReal.

"The winds were quite similar to 1998 with Fossett on Stars and Stripes but not as much as expected," Gladstone told Scuttlebutt, the e-mail sailing newsletter. "We started with 9-10 knots and didn't see more than 13 the entire race. We pretty much hugged the coastline all the way to Pt. Loma until we reached the Coronados at about 5 p.m. At this point we had some confidence the wind would hold, so instead of hedging offshore as was originally planned we popped this new A3 that pushed us down nicely to a lay line close to Todos Santos [Bay]."

The boats were not similar. Both were 60-footers, but Stars & Stripes---built to beat New Zealand's 130-foot monohull in '88---was a catamaran while LoeReal is a tri. S&S had a wing sail, LoeReal a standard rig. And S&S was much lighter.

Racing at the Rolex Farr 40 Worlds was canned today, halfway through the first race of the day. Disappointing for all involved – the race committee that had worked hard to get the course in place, the competing crews that had waited patiently for the wind to settle and Guido Belgiorno-Nettis, owner of Transfusion (AUS), whose crew had chiseled out a handy lead in what racing there was. Going into day three, with positions unchanged, Transfusion leads Barking Mad (USA) and Nerone (ITA).

Principal Race Officer Peter ‘Luigi’ Reggio had been hopeful when the Race Committee boat dropped the AP (postponement) flag at 14.10 local time, “early on it looked like we were going to have some good races. We had 8-10 knots from 190o – 205o, so it was fine when we started the first race.”

A clean start saw Alessandro Barnaba’s Fiamma (ITA) secure the pin with Massimo Mezzaroma and Alberto Signorini’s Nerone on her hip. Transfusion and Jim Richardson’s Barking Mad took up position closer to the Race Committee boat. The first beat was pretty uneventful with the left side of the course appearing favoured. Transfusion and Barking Mad cruised into the top mark in close company, but unopposed on port tack, as Belgiorno Nettis explained, “Tom Slingsby, our tactician, got us a very good start. We had a nice lane, which we worked and built on. We managed to keep it going all the way up. We didn’t get interfered with too much, nobody was tacking on top of us and we were able to call most of the shots. Barking Mad came across at us at one point, but we managed to sit on them for the last part of the beat, virtually on the port lay line.”

A ten degree swing in the wind to the right led to a course change, but gave little warning of what lay ahead. Transfusion rounded a boat length ahead of Barking Mad, with Nerone in third. The overnight top three taking up where they had left off the day before. The wind was manifestly softening during the run and as the leaders rounded the leeward mark the race was rewritten from potential thriller into a complete farce. Luigi was quick to call time, “on the run down a big huge black cloud decided to show up over our left shoulder and sucked out all the velocity. When boats got to the leeward gate everything shuffled up. We abandoned at that point because it was just not going to be fair. This is a Worlds. The racing has to be as fair as possible and this was not.”

The Race Committee kept everyone on the water for as long as possible, but finally called time at 15.00, accepting that the wind was not going to play ball. Positions therefore remain unchanged and whilst extremely disappointed not to get a race in, Belgiorno Nettis was looking on the bright side, “It was a pretty challenging day. It was extremely disappointing not to be able to continue the race having worked so hard to get to where we were. When Luigi called it off, I was thinking ‘boy, that was a lot of hard work for nothing’. But then the pressure was off. The boys went for a swim and I couldn’t resist it either. At the moment we’re still where we were yesterday and that’s nice I suppose.”

Racing continues tomorrow, Friday, April 23 with a first warning signal at 11.00. The Rolex Farr 40 World Championship concludes on Saturday, April 24.

For more information about the 2010 Rolex Farr 40 World Championship, including results, crew lists, and media accreditation, please visit www.farr40worlds.com

Photos by Diana BogaardsOn Wednesday April 21st 2010, the two carbon fibre masts of giant schooner Athos were stepped and supplied with SmartRigging PBO. The event took place in the early morning at Holland Jachtbouw in Zaandam, just above Amsterdam/Netherlands. By the end of the afternoon, the 203ft privately owned cruising yacht, designed by Andre Hoek, was ready for the first trimming session.

"We designed the standing rigging for Athos, which is all custom made", explains Constantijn Weber from Joure (Netherlands) based SmartRigging. "Rod rigging is the standard for this segment. However, we supplied her with lightweight composite rigging, normally used for racing yachts. It is approximately eighty percent lighter than stainless steel, which makes it interesting for a 62 meter long schooner as Athos."

Weber about the process: "We use a high quality production technique, called endless winding, optimized by us. It allows us to work very precisely. We put the same amount of tension on all fibres to stretch them equally, which results in low stretch and a long lifespan."

Precise job

Designing the standing rigging for 203ft Athos was not a usual challenge for SmartRigging. Weber: "No, the biggest yacht we have done before was 32 meter long. The engineering work took up most of the time, as everything needs to fit at once. We can't make any mistakes, because that means you can start all over again. It is impossible to adjust the rigging length as soon as it is produced." Walking onboard of the Dutch schooner he smiles: "Fortunately, we succeeded."

Athos & SmartRiggingin facts

Athos is the largest two-mast schooner ever built. She is designed by Andre Hoek and built by Holland Jachtbouw. The carbon masts are manufactured by Rondal and the standing rigging by SmartRigging. She carries the biggest lightweight rigging package yet supplied in the world. Compared to rod rigging, it saves the weight of four Mini Cooper cars at the height of the first spreader. A total of 5.500 kilometres of fibre has been used for the standing rigging.

Valencia confirmed as fourth venue of the RC 44 Championship Tour 2010The iconic sailing venue, home of the America’s Cup 2007 and 2010, will host the fourth stage of the RC 44 Championship Tour 2010.

April 22, 2010 – The RC 44 Class announces today that the fourth stage of the Championship Tour 2010 will take place in Valencia, Spain, on July 27 – August 1. The RC 44 Valencia Cup will follow the regattas held in Dubai (UAE), Lake Traunsee (AUS) and Copenhagen (DEN) earlier in the year.

“I am very pleased that Valencia is confirmed as the fourth venue of the RC 44 Championship Tour 2010” said Russell Coutts, BMW ORACLE Racing CEO and Chairman of the RC44 Class. “One of our objectives with this Class is to sail in great sailing venues. The famous sea breeze that blows in Valencia in the summer should provide great racing and I look forward to competing again in Valencia.”

Jorge Gisbert, General Director Consorcio Valencia 2007, added: "We are delighted to welcome the RC44 Championship Tour in Valencia, further consolidating the city's position as a foremost sailing venue. Together with the Real Club Náutico de Valencia and the Spanish and Valencian Sailing Federations, we look forward to welcoming all the RC44 teams to the Marina Real Juan Carlos I and to repeating the success of the last two editions of the America's Cup. We hope the teams feel at home here and that the Valencian public enjoys a fantastic show."

“Spain has a long tradition in organising top level sailing events”, comments the RC 44 Class manager Bertrand Favre. “It is important for us as a Class, as well as for the team owners to compete in this country. The RC 44 World Championship will also take place in Spain, in Lanzarote in October, which is great.”

The RC 44 Valencia Cup will begin on Tuesday with the match racing event. After a full round robin held over two days, team owners will take the helm for three days of fleet races.

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Two amazing days of racing on Lerici’s high side kicked off the 2010 Audi Melges 20 Sailing Series with Renato Vallivero on Turnover taking the win and overall lead of the four part regatta series. Brand new to the Audi Melges 20 scene is Francesco Farnetti on Reggini Sailng Team placing second. No stranger to supersonic European competition — Luca Domenici on Notaro Team was third.

This year the Audi Sailing Series is red HOT as 26 teams took to the starting line. A very special thanks to all the competitors who were able to participate. We look forward seeing everyone back for Event No. 2 in Scarlino, Italy on May 22-23 — be there! Stay close to audisailingseries.com and melges20.com for all the latest news and developments as this event draws closer.

For the teams competing at the Rolex Farr 40 Worlds in the Dominican Republic, it was a long, hot morning waiting dockside at the Casa de Campo Marina for the breeze to fill in. PRO Peter Reggio postponed the 11am start and kept the fleet dockside where they could find shade and stay hydrated. After an hour and a half delay, the fleet was sent out to the race area just a mile out from the marina entrance and racing was underway by 1pm. But the tropical Caribbean – temperatures in the 900F and high humidity – tested crewmembers’ concentration and focus.

The SSW breeze was light at 6-8 knots for the first race. The race committee sent the fleet on a 1.7 nautical mile W-L-W-L course. Transfusion (AUS) led the pack down the line on starboard and was at the pin end at the gun.

Owner/helmsman, Guido Belgiorno-Nettis said, “We decided we wanted to go conservative at the start – we got ourselves a nice little lane, and we had a good start. And then the boat was fast and we just kept out of trouble, but Tom (Slingsby, tactician) must have felt it was just worth staying were we were -- we didn’t do many tacks, and we got to the top mark first. Then we just kept that gap all the way. Very light, very challenging conditions…very exhausting, I’ve got to say it was really hard work.

“I think the first race was very nice, it was very satisfying, particularly with the Pre-Worlds result for us (Transfusion finished 10th). It was nice to come back and get a first in the first race and keep the good result going.”

For the second race, the race committee reset the starting line to the west and sent competitors on the same course as the breeze increased slightly up to 12 knots. The fleet was even more tightly packed and hard by the pin end of the start line, Massimo Mezzaroma’s Nerone (ITA) was very close to being over early. Clearly they thought they were, though there was no flag or call from the RC boat, and after a boat length, Nerone turned around, sailed back and recrossed the start line. But the team was impressive as they clawed back from last place to finish in 5th place.

A frustrated Vasco Vascotto, Nerone’s tactician said, “We were supposed to be over the line, and we came back (to restart). It was a big present to everyone. We have an opportunity to do better – we made a present of four points today, I hope it is enough for the competitors!”

Alex Roepers’ Plenty (USA), overlapped and to windward of Lisa & Martin Hill’s Estate Master (AUS), tacked away for clear air and went to the right side of the course. Transfusion, midway down the start line was in clear air and stayed left up the first beat, slowly working they way through the fleet. At the top mark they were in third place and from there worked up to second at the leeward mark and by the windward mark the second time, they were in the lead, which they held to the finish.

The breeze dropped back to 6-8 knots for the third and final race of the day. At the start, it was Doug Douglass’ Goombay Smash (USA) at the pin end leading Estate Master, with Transfusion and Wolfgang Schaefer’s Struntje Light (GER) on their hip. Goombay Smash led the fleet all the way around the course and down the last leg they were under attack from Barking Mad.

Jim Richardson, Barking Mad owner/helmsman said, “The wind had lightened up a bit, and when you’re out in the heat all day and it’s light, it’s hard to concentrate. People get cranky on the boat, and people get cranky on other boats. But I thought our crew did a really good job of sailing in those conditions and everyone kept their focus. We realized how difficult it is to sail in those conditions, so factoring all that we were pretty pleased.”

Barking Mad was second around the first mark and second around the leeward gate – they rounded the left gate, while Goombay Smash and Nerone went for the right hand gate. Heading downwind to the finish, Barking Mad started to reel in Goombay Smash, and Richardson said, “It’s hard to defend downwind in light air, and we got inside of them a little bit and we had a little bit of pressure. We were quite a distance away from them, but we were on their air.” The finish was looking to be too close to call until Barking Mad got into a bit more pressure and they crossed the finish line just ahead of Goombay Smash.

Today was the Casa de Campo Race Day. Day One’s overall leaders after three races – Transfusion, Barking Mad, Nerone – were presented with Farr 40 boat models built by Abordage. The company, based in San Cristobal, Dominican Republic, has been proudly producing beautifully hand-crafted ship models since 1989.

For more information about the 2010 Rolex Farr 40 World Championship, including results, crew lists, and media accreditation, please visit http://www.farr40worlds.com/

The Louis Vuitton Trophy is coming to Sardinia in May, with 10 elite sailing teams set to race for two weeks on the sparkling waters of the Mediterranean Sea off La Maddalena.

With just one month to go before racing begins on May 22, the host team, Mascalzone Latino Audi Team, is eager to extend a warm welcome to teams, sponsors and guests alike.

“La Maddalena is among the best places in the world to sail,” said Vincenzo Onorato, the team principal of Mascalzone Latino Audi Team. “The waters are warm, the wind conditions are very good and the people of La Maddalena will be gracious hosts. I want to welcome all of my sailing friends and fans of the sport to join us here in May.”

The Louis Vuitton Trophy - La Maddalena follows two successful regattas in Auckland (February 2010) and Nice (November 2009) over the past six months. Further events are planned in Dubai in November and Hong Kong in January of 2011.

For La Maddalena, two additional teams will join the eight who competed in Auckland, and both are world-class sailing squads. BMW ORACLE Racing, who won the America’s Cup Match in February, rejoins the Louis Vuitton Trophy after it missed the Auckland regatta due to its Cup commitments.

Luna Rossa, which has competed for the America’s Cup three times, winning the Louis Vuitton Cup in 2000, will race for the Louis Vuitton Trophy for the very first time, after sailing in a precursor event, the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series in 2009. Luna Rossa has assembled an impressive crew, including skipper Ed Baird, winner of the 32nd America’s Cup with Alinghi and tactician Torben Grael, who skippered Ericsson to a win in the last Volvo Ocean Race.

The addition of Luna Rossa will make for three Italian teams in La Maddalena, including Azzurra, the winning team in the Nice event. Also on the start list is the champion from Auckland, Emirates Team New Zealand. The full line-up for La Maddalena is 10 teams, representing eight countries:

La Maddalena is small town (population near 12 000) on an island with the same name that sits just one nautical mile off the Northeast coast of Sardinia. It is renowned for its beaches and its pink, rocky terrain and like Sardinia itself, offers up some of the most stunning backdrops for sailing in the Mediterranean.

The race village itself is set up about one kilometre to the east of the centre of town, near the southeast corner of the island. The heart of the race village will feature a big screen broadcasting all of the action from the race course. Crews will be in the race village interacting with the crowds during photo sessions, autograph signings and public press conferences. Food and beverage as well as team merchandise is also available, and the Louis Vuitton Junior Trophy will be contested by local junior sailors.

The easiest way to get to La Maddalena is to fly into Olbia’s Costa Smeralda airport (many flights transfer through Rome) and then transfer by road to Palau, approximately 40 kilometres to the north of Olbia. From Palau, there is a short ferry to La Maddalena. Alternatively, there are ferries into Palau from Corsica as well as Genoa and Napoli.

Pic 1: Fitting the bladed to the new wind generator.Pic 2: I turned the amp meter back on and I'm smiling about it!Jessica Watson Blog:I'm happy to report that yesterday we finally made some good progress and today's been a good days sailing too. It's amazing how much closer Sydney looks when we're moving. And wow, we're starting to get close too!So nothing too new or exciting to report just lots of flying along with the occasional patch of sunshine and life as normal on Ella's Pink Lady.

Something I'm not too thrilled about though is the forecast for the next week. It's not going to be the easy sailing that I asked for. Hopefully nothing too bad but not exactly a walk in the park stuff either. OK, walk inthe park isn't really the best expression to use, but you get the picture!

I had to give myself a good talking to after reading Bob's latest forecast. I'd been hoping that was the last of the nasty stuff. Oh well, I've only got to keep up the whole "pretending to be tough" thing for a little while longer!

I hear someone (Granddad Chisholm!) has been stirring things up on both sides of the Tasman over whether I'm a Kiwi or and Aussie. Apparently New Zealand's trying to claim me! I don't think that anything I say will make the slightest difference on this one, but I will say that I do have both Australian and NewZealand passports.

Australia's home to me (sorry Granddad!) but my trusty first mate is a stuffed Kiwi!

Monday, April 19, 2010

It was really pleasing to finally get a result in the two-and-half year America's Cup saga in Valencia in February.

I was fortunate to be in Spain for the Deed of Gift match between defenders Alinghi and challengers BMW Oracle as I was there Finn training for a week.

It was an amazing spectacle, the boats were incredible feats of design and engineering and it was a fascinating learning experience seeing some of the technology involved up close. As a competition BMW Oracle's use of the 'wing' technology meant it was something of a mismatch but it was just such a relief to finally see the event staged and now we can start looking forward to what BMW Oracle, as the new defenders, will propose as the format for the 34th America's Cup.

There's inevitably a lot of rumour and speculation already doing the rounds about where and when the Cup will be held and what the rules regarding the boats will be. One of the more interesting suggestions is that t he Cup won't now happen until 2014 and if that is the case then it certainly leaves all of the teams with a lot of time to prepare their teams and design a new boat to new Americas Cup class rule.

I'm still managing to strike a suitable balance between progressing my 2012 Finn campaign and my desire to win the America's Cup with TEAMORIGIN.

The week I spent in Valencia training with my coach David Howlett working on some of the technical aspects of the boat development. We had Simon Holloway from PI Research, who incidentally does a lot of work helping with the data collection and analysis for F1, down to help with collecting some performance data which we can then pass on to Juan Guaray our Argentinean sail designer. The whole process is fascinating and the technology we are using, whilst on a small scale, is similar to what we will use in the Americas Cup future.

Because my schedule is pretty full on I'm completely reliant on my coach David Howlett set ting the tone of the training camps and making sure the boat is ready for me to just step into and sail. The camps and practices have to be really well structured with very clear objectives to make sure I get the most out of the limited time I have to sail the Finn. David's ongoing role in this is vital.

Since first getting back in the Finn, after 18 months out of the boat, last December we've made some really pleasing progress. Despite the break the boat hasn't ever felt alien to me, which was a pleasant surprise, and we know where we're going in terms of the technical side and what work we want to do with our sail designers. I go back to Valencia later this month to keep things ticking along on that front.

I'm still hoping to compete at the Skandia Sail for Gold Regatta at Weymouth and Portland in August as I want to gather as much information as possible about the conditions and venue. But the real focus will shift back to my Finn campaign in the winter 2010 when I plan to head to the Southern Hemisphere for three or four months' serious training and boat tuning. This will be when I start getting my body weight back up and really working on the boat and sail design to go into the 2011 season fully competitive.

There's an awful lot of sailing to be done before then, however, with the Audi Medcup TP52 Circuit starting in Cascais, Portugal on May 11 plus a number of World Match Racing Tour events and the next WSTA Louis Vuitton Trophy event in Italy in May that TEAMORIGIN will be competing in.

In many ways we've punched below our weight in terms of our WTSA LV Trophy event results so far and the last event in Auckland was especially disappointing as again it was silly mistakes which cost us. The hard stuff we're getting right but we need to iron out the small errors to start getting the results.

We had a great weekend racing Charles Dunstone's TP52 Rio at the RORC Easter Regatta. Some of the team are relativel y inexperienced in TP52s so getting quality racing time together in often tricky Solent conditions was really invaluable. By the last day our communication and teamwork at the back of the boat particularly was much crisper and we're looking forward to the Audi MedCup now.

Just last week we competed in the first of the World Match Racing Tour Regattas in Marseille. We finished second to local hero Mathieu Richard but it was a good result for us especially as we had not raced in the J80 class of boat before. I was racing with Matt Cornwell, Iain Percy and Christian Kamp. We make a good team and importantly we really enjoy sailing together.

Also I'm looking forward to the 2010 J.P. Morgan Asset Management Round the Island Race on June 19. This is always such a fantastic spectacle; so many different types of boat and people take part it's really enjoyable. It also gets lots of media attention and whereas sailing often gets a bad rap for being difficult to follow, t he RTIR course is very easy to understand, which is good for the sport's profile. - www.benainslie.com

Sunday, April 18, 2010

Photo credit: Rolex / Daniel Forster The sailing conditions off the Casa de Campo resort in La Romana, Dominican Republic lived up to expectations as the Farr 40 fleet finished up a five-race series for the Rolex Farr 40 Pre-Worlds. Ten boats and teams from four countries – United States, Italy, Australia, and Germany – are in the Caribbean to tune up for the Rolex Farr 40World Championship which will run from April 21 – 24, 2010.

After five races for the Rolex Farr 40 Pre-Worlds, it was Lisa & Martin Hill’s Estate Master (AUS) that finished on top, with Doug Douglass’ Goombay Smash (USA), and defending Rolex Farr 40 World Champion, Jim Richardson’s Barking Mad (USA) in third place.

Though the fleet is smaller than in recent Farr 40 Worlds, the racing was just as tight and competitive: in the five races, eight teams posted scores in the top three, the shifty conditions over the weekend giving all teams a shot at coming out on top.

On Saturday, Principal Race Officer Peter Reggio and his race committee ran three races -- two nautical mile leg windward/leeward courses -- that gave the fleet of ten boats a taste of the local conditions.

The 2008 Rolex North American Champion Doug Douglass and his Goombay Smash team won the first race of the regatta and went on to finish the first day of racing at the top of the leader board. Lisa and Martin Hill’s Estate Master took second in race one and held off the Nerone (ITA), steered by Alberto Signorini to finish second. Defending Rolex Farr 40 World Champion Jim Richardson’s Barking Mad took the gun in race two ahead of Enfant Terrible (ITA) crossing in second and fellow Italian team Alessandro Barnaba’s Fiamma (ITA) sliding into third.

On Sunday, two more windward/leeward races were run, and going into the fifth and last race, Estate Master was tied with Goombay Smash for first place overall. Both boats had a plan to start at the pin end, but it was Estate Master that pulled it off. Added to that, at the top of the first windward beat, Goombay Smash incurred a penalty for a port-starboard incident and had to do a 7200 turn, which effectively ended their chances of catching Estate Master.

Owner/helmsman Martin Hill plan to start at the pin end paid off, “We noticed there’s a trend at the bottom of the course -- there’ s a right breeze and you get to the top mark and it goes left, so ideally you try to start on starboard as far as you can towards the pin, and then tack onto port and go for the top mark. That was our plan and we got down there and no one was around us, so happy days! I don’t know what was wrong, so we tacked and led the entire race. We’re not stupid enough to know that this is a practice race for the Worlds. Still I take any win, and it was lovely – the wind, the sunshine, and just being in the Caribbean, it’s just fantastic here.”

Hill, clearly enthused about his teams Pre-Worlds win, cautioned, “The only thing is there’s always a type of voodoo about winning the Pre-Worlds, it’s bad luck. But I said, ‘I’m not into superstitions, I’ve got to take any international regatta that I can’.

Hill’s wife, Lisa, sails on the boat in the pit position. Apparently a quick learner, she’s only been sailing six years, four of them on their Farr 40. After raising three kids in Sydney, she was looking around for something to do to fill her time. Hill said, “So I thought, well Martin’s not going to stop sailing, and so I sort of turned up one day and said ‘I’m here boys, and they sort of looked horrified’. And I thought, ‘I’ve brought up three kids I think I can do this. Just be patient.’”

Given the distance they had to travel from Australia, Hill and his crew arrived in the Dominican Republic last Saturday a full week before the Pre-Worlds began, to get acclimatized to the time difference. They put the days to good use, sailing in the local conditions. Hill said, “We had a new mast and things to test out. It gave us a lot of confidence in testing the breeze and also we’ve been recording for the last month the wind direction, so we’ve been watching the trend.” “It’s a little obsessive”, he said with a laugh, “but you need a certain amount of confidence. We had the patience to wait for the shifts, we knew that it would come.”

Indicative of several teams whose scores trended up through the series, Alex Roepers’ Plenty (USA) had a second in the last race. Tactician Tony Rey said, “ We pulled some magic out there. We had a reasonable start and hit the first two shifts and sort of put our elbows out from there and tried to put everyone behind us.”

About the upcoming Worlds, Rey said, “It’s going to be shifty enough, especially if we sail close to land – they’ll be plenty of lead changes to follow. This week is about getting off the starting line and being able to go straight for the first eight minutes. If you can do that, without tacking, you’re going to be in the top four at the top mark.”

Added to that is the fleet size which makes it even more critical to sail well, Rey said, “With ten boats you have to be very fast and you have to get a good start, it’s very hard to come back.”

The Rolex Farr 40 World Championship racing begins on Wednesday, April 21 through Saturday, April 24, and is organised by the Casa de Campo Yacht Club and the Farr 40 Class Association. Racing will be led by Principal Race Officer Peter Reggio, with Henry Menin as Jury Chairman. The Race Committee intends to conduct as many races as practical on each scheduled day of racing, with up to a maximum of ten races for the series.

A charity fundraising golf tournament for the competitors, on the famed Pete Dye-designed “Teeth of the Dog” golf course, will be held tomorrow, Monday, April 19. Monies raised from the tournament will be donated to benefit the Haitian disaster relief effort, through Partners in Health (PIH), a Boston-based non-profit organization that has been on the ground in Haiti for over 20 years. PIH operates world-renowned clinics and health care programs with 120 doctors and nearly 500 nurses and nursing assistants in eight sites across Haiti. For more information, go to www.standwithhaiti.org/haiti.

For more information about the 2010 Rolex Farr 40 World Championship, including entry list and media accreditation, please visit www.farr40worlds.com.

I could never explain well enough what the situation is like over here in Europe for anyone who wants to travel somewhere or get a hotel room.

Since making the decision to try to escape one day early, here is what I have encountered:

1. Got to my hotel in Barcelona and had them tell me that the hotel was oversold, but that had covered me in another hotel.

2. Was boarding the flight to Atlanta this morning when the airport authority ordered the airport closed.

3. Waited there as told by Delta, and lived through all the "we're going", "no, we're boarding in 20 minutes", "no it's canceled", "wait, we're going at 12:00". During these three hours I was asking Torbjorn's pilot, Henry, who was in Palma with Torbjorn's plane, about the likelihood that Barcelona would reopen, as well as about Madrid and Lisbon. Finally, Delta pulled the plug at 1300.

4. Onto plan C. Get a car or train to Lisbon for tomorrow's flight to Newark which my travel agent Elin had booked before Plan B. (Plan A was flying through Frankfurt on Monday in Business Class arriving into SFO at 1200, nice and fresh. That plan got nixed on Friday).

5. No cars available in BCN.

6. Called Russell Coutts' PA Alex who is Spanish. She had been stranded in Paris and was on a 13 hour bus ride to Barcelona. All the while, she had been working on getting Russ out of London where he had been stranded since Friday. He eventually took a train to Paris this morning and is now driving from Paris to Madrid...18 hours.

7. Alex had a network modem and got me a train to Madrid and a car to rent there to drive to Lisbon, all from the bus.

8. I then went to the same train station in Barcelona where she was arriving by bus to then take a train to Valencia where she lives.

9. When I got to the train station it was total chaos. The line to buy a ticket was out the door. Thank God she had sorted it all for me and bought the tickets on line.

10. I then started to think that driving 8 hours tonight from Madrid to Lisbon might not be a good idea. So I asked her about a train. At first, nothing. Then she did something else magical and found one that leaves at 1030 tonight and get to Lisbon at 8am tomorrow. "Perfect...let's buy it"

11. What about Lisbon airport? Is it still open? Called Torbjorn's pilot Henry again. Yes, still open but Palma and Madrid closing. The cloud is still creeping South! Lisbon expected to stay open. Better start moving Southwest!

12. Called United to reconfirm the flight. With all the hecticness, that reservation had been voided somehow. My heart was in my throat as the agent told me this very calmly. I knew this flight was my last chance.

13. I resurrected the reservation. Thank goodness.

14. Then my credit card would not work. Unbelievable! If he could not issue the ticket I would not have a reservation and the flights for the rest of the week are oversold. All the people in Europe who want to go to the USA are running like rats down into the Southwest corner.

15. I had one more credit card...one I never use it.... it is for my kids. I used it!! And it worked!

So, I am now on the train. Surely, I am not done jumping through hoops. Going to try to sleep a bit as I am pretty fried and I will need energy tonight for sure. If I get on the plane, I can sleep all I want.

Obviously in cases like this you don't ask what it costs or if you can get an upgrade. All that is out the window.

Fortunately, Artemis won the regatta so I feel a little less badly for leaving them. But my poor teammates are stuck in Palma I am afraid. Maybe they will take the Artemis RIB or a ferry to Valencia and drive to Lisbon.

I am sure by now you are seeing it on the news in the States or wherever you live.

Saturday, April 17, 2010

Thursday, April 15, 2010

The countdown to San Diego - the first event of the inaugural Melges CaliforniaCup is down to just over two weeks - and the event is shaping up to be a greatone.

The series is attracting some of the top competitors in the Class, including VinceBrun, two-time World Champion, and Brian Porter, national champion severaltimes over. Both of whom have already confirmed their participation in SanDiego.

With more than ten teams already on the entry list and three more to confirm inthe days ahead, the California Melges 24 Fleet is showing that it is very muchalive and ready to put the West Coast back on top as a premier destination forgreat competition and lots of fun.